The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1887-01-22
No Longer Need for Burial at Sea.


steamship American, plying between
New York and Liverpool, died on
board his vessel during the voyage out
to New York. The remains were pre-
served aud brought to New York,
where they were embalmed and then
sent back for burial to his friends in
England. The New York Marine
journal, commenting on the matter,
says:
tWhatever claims we assert tOa supe-
rior civilizations, we suffer one barr
barous usage, the burial at sea. Certain
Guinea tribes thus devote their dead
in the belief that the ghost accom-
panies the remains and is banished
forever. How much batter is 1t to
commit the dead to the NAV of shark
than, like the Wanyanwesi, 10 the
dales, to that Of dogs! Even the
Parsees. who expose their dead to the
beak of vuitures, do so on showers OF
silence" The tomb or the quiet rests
ing place on land Is the last claim the
dead makes at our hands and should
not be denIed. An invalid In pursuit
of health takes an Atlantic steamship
and dies on midsocean. he or she is u
precious part of some household, and
does not forfeit, but more keenly
quickens its affections by death.
Whether the departed one returns in
spirit matters little he or she remains
a Christening memory, and the glove
which Is nearness" demands that
opportunity for a faithful continuous
expression of remembrance which
inierment in the neighborhood Of the
household affords. True, dissolution
goes on in the grave above which We
plant marble or flower, but the sense
that we have near US all that we could
de,ain from tho grasp of death ministers
a comfort which only bereaved folk
can understand in its full measure.
How many families in our towns for
bear to forsake them simply because of
cherished ones, who, in the graveyards
of these towns seem, In effect, to thrust
forth their quiet hands to arrest de-
sertion by their survivors,, and are re-
intorced by death in their authority
over our affections, whose moral en-
brace of the dead Is more jealous aud
clinging than of the living. In these
days OF ordinarily short voyages there
appears to us to be no more warrant for
the committal of dead person to the
sea than to leave the remains unburied
upon a cemeteay sod, and the iudig-
nant remons,rauce of the public would
certainly follow the latter sacrilege.
To cast overheard human body,
whose life has gone out, like dead
pig, Is not less abhorrent because we
pretend to mitigate the barbarism
with humble of a few Scriptural
phrases before getting rid of it.
Honor Is due to the dead, whether
he lies in the saloon or in the forecastIe
of ship; he claims some fair measure
of the sobriety and dignity of treats
ment which the Romans and Greeks
paid, the Monametans and Christians
still pay, to their dead, aud Is some.
thing more than mere dumpage.
Would any one say that aught
should have been done other than
what was done long ago when the
remains Of Cap. Grace, Of tt 9 National
Line steamship America, who died
while approaching our shores, were
brought to this port, and upon the
return of the chip, dispatched to his
English home for burial. The hospi- |
taiity of the sod of the accustomed |
neighborhood is due to the dead, who,
in many instances, as in that of Capt. !
Grace, have a surviving franchise to
the honor Of men the ownership and |
bestowal Of the dead are the right of |
his kin or OF his friends, and in these